Canon Pro-1 and matte black ink

Pitalim

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Hello everyone!

I purchased a Canon Pro-1 at the end of 2014. Since then I've noticed that it drinks ink like my grandma drinks tea.

Since last October I've started using 3rd party inks by refilling OEM carts (Thanks to JToolman and Precision Colors). All has being going well. The carts, the chips and the ink are good. The only thing that is bothering me is the mysterious excessive consumption of matte black ink. I suppose since i do not print matte prints, the printer must run regular cleaning cycles to unclog the matte black ink nozzle. Its the only logical explanation...

Now i'm wondering: How many ml of ink does it take to fill the ink pads?

Many thanks
 

mikling

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Indeed, mine also consumes a lot of MK as well. This has run out prior to CO which is a surprise for me. I did print a fair amount of fine art settings on matte type paper so it might be the case that this printer uses a lot of MK. Only time will tell what is going on but the smoothness of B&W gradations is a sight to behold.
 

The Hat

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The only thing that is bothering me is the mysterious excessive consumption of matte black ink. I suppose since i do not print matte prints,
Hi @Pitalim and welcome, the matte black usage is a contentious issue, what I found was the Pro 1 uses a blend of Matte and photo black together on all surfaces, matte and gloss a like, now I know it’s not supposed to do that, but it does it rather well and the results speaks for itself.
Now i'm wondering: How many ml of ink does it take to fill the ink pads?
The waste ink cartridge should normally fill in just over two years depending on regular use, and by my calculations it takes about 1.25 litres, but the machine will notify you long before that, the first notice will be 80% full.

You should try entering Service Mode on the printer if that is possible, that will give you the precise Percentage of waste ink, beware dough, you might not be able to enter Service Mode, but you can still try...
 

Pitalim

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You should try entering Service Mode on the printer if that is possible, that will give you the precise Percentage of waste ink, beware dough, you might not be able to enter Service Mode, but you can still try...
@The Hat That is very interesting. :thumbsup Is there any thread on this forum about getting in and out of Service Mode without Canon having to know about it at the next service centre? :hide

The ink pad levels should be made available to check via the printer utility. Perhaps in the next driver/firmware update :bow

Since i do not print often i made a schedule of printing postcards every two or three days to keep the cleaning cycles short. It was a shock for me to see that the matte ink level had dropped to nearly empty when the rest of ink carts where about 75% of capacity, after first even load of 3rd party inks. I took out Mk black to get it weighed on a gram scale and checked out to be almost dry.
I refilled it and after continuing usage it has reached 10% (take peep at the attached file). So two cart loads of MK black run out just as fast as one Chroma Optimiser cart! :ep

I don't like the idea of buying ink for the printer to flush it down the drain. I am considering selling "the beast"... :hit
 

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The Hat

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@Pitalim, Firstly, stay away from all firmware upgrades if you wish to maintain better control over your printer, that includes driver upgrades too, if the printer is working properly then no upgrade is going to make it work any better, I reckon these upgrades are to ensure that Canon can have even more control of your machine.

Your black ink usage is way over the top, and you may have damaged the inlet valve in that cartridge when you refilled it, and the other explanation could be that your running with the ink monitoring disabled on the black, but clearly, I can see you’re not.

There also maybe something wrong with your cartridges chip or you’re not filling your carts full enough, the cartridge design means that they should never run dry and always have ink left when declared empty, try filling to 86 gm.

I’ll PM you with the Service Mode sequence and App. ;)
 

Pitalim

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Your black ink usage is way over the top, and you may have damaged the inlet valve in that cartridge when you refilled it

When i mentioned that i refilled it, I meant that i replaced it with another refilled cart (I have two sets of OEM carts).

So that means the problem of the MK black ink is happening on two different cartridges. The chips are from china (Aliexpress), the ones that seem to be sold out...

I've been following the instructions of printer master @jtoolman, and one of the set of carts where modified by him. I fill them up with 40ml of ink.

Perhaps there is a fault on the MK black chip...

The firmware i have it updated to the latest version on Canon's website.

As i'm new here i'll have to see how to use PM. Thanks @The Hat
 
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